Our Wyoming Weekend

Last Saturday, we received the news that Regan's Grandpa who lives in Wyoming passed away while hearding cattle on the mountain side. He was 86 years old and you might ask, why was he hearding cattle at his age? Well, that is exactly the kind of person he was...never wanting to stop working and always living life doing what he loved, farming. I think if he had his choice, this is how he would have wanted to leave this earth.

We packed all 3 kids in the car on Tuesday morning and drove 8 hours to the great town of Burlington, Wyoming. I still am in amazement of how Ellie did in the car both ways. She slept most of the way and was so good-come on, she is only 2 1/2 weeks old! Anyway, it was great to be at Grandma's house all week and spend so much time with Regan's family. Regan and his brother spoke at their Grandpa's funeral and afterwards, people said it was the funniest funeral they had ever been to. More like a celebration of life than a mourning. I played a piece on my violin called Ashokan's Farewell and it was perfect for his Grandpa. A westerny, twangy piece that suited him very well.

We came home on Saturday and braved the scary Wyoming roads. There was a point where Regan and I were just driving along at the speed limit when all of a sudden, we started sliding all over the road. WE had hit a patch of black ice which we obvoiuslly couldn't see, and fortuanatly, Regan pulled out of it calmly and didn't jerk the wheel, otherwise we would have flipped our car! It was so scary and so needless to say, we were so grateful to be home and to be safe!

Here is the mother coming out of me, but honestly, it really made me just think-it is not worth going fast or trying to get to your destination fast when the weather is bad, and now that it is snowing in Utah today, it really makes me want to drive so safe and slow since I have 3 little ones with me!

Anyway, we are glad that we had such a great weekend being with family this week and reflecting back to the life of Ferrel Riley. He is the reason why we named our little boy Riley. He was such a hard worker and a great guy!

While we were there, we went to Cody for a day to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum! WOW-it had 5 museums all together and the kids loved it. Here are some pictures of our trip!